What is a glitch? Glitches are mistakes in movies and TV shows. They can be technical goofs, continuity errors, or anything that makes you scratch your head and say, "Huh?" This site is devoted to glitches in the original Star Wars film series, not the Special Editions. No information from novels or fan-based media is included.

In the hangar of the Trade Federation ship, Qui-Gon says "Battle Droids" in a surprised tone, although the Jedi already saw and fought Battle Droids on board the ship. Now if he'd made a comment on the large number of Battle Droids...

Anakin's bedroom is filled with interesting sci-fi paraphernalia, including a bowl-shaped object with a handle hanging near the door that appears to be formed of thin black plastic strips. This is a toy that was sold on Earth sometime in the '80's under the name of Trac Ball.

The decoy queen gives Padmé, the true Queen Amidala, the task of cleaning up R2-D2, a dirty job she could've alotted to one of the real handmaidens just as easily.

The citizens who elected Queen Amidala probably know that her first name is Padmé. Wouldn't that make it dangerous for her use her real name when posing as a handmaiden? Or is Padmé just a super-common name?

Anakin builds a protocol droid to help his mom. It doesn't seem that a slave would have much use for a protocol droid. Perhaps a housework droid or a manual labor droid would've been more appropriate.

Capt. Panaka says one of the candidates for the new supreme Chancellor is Bail Antilles. Earlier, we heard that Bail Organa was in line for the job. Is this a glitch, or are two men named Bail actually in the running?

Episode II: Attack of the Clones

Obi-Wan lands his fighter in the pouring rain, exits the craft, takes about five steps, and then, when it is too late to do him any good, puts on his hood.

Padmé pushes a button on the ship's control panel to send a message to the Jedi Council. She pushes the exact same button to display a star chart.

Artoo can fly. Wait...he can fly?!?

Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

Most of the things Obi-Wan tells Luke about his father in Episode IV turn out to be true, at least from a certain point of view. Except for that business about Skywalker Sr. wanting Luke to have his lightsaber when he was old enough. If Anakin had any such wish, he couldn't have told it to Obi-Wan since the latter didn't even learn about Anakin's pending fatherhood until after the two Jedi were beyond the point of making friendly small talk.

When Artoo is sliding across the deck of General Greivous swiftly tilting ship, why doesn't he just fly above it?

On a space ship, "down" is determined by artificial gravity. Therefore, if the ship is damaged and begins to tilt, those inside would not begin to slide across the floor; gravity would keep them oriented to the floor, no matter what position the ship was in. The only way our heroes could experience the "Poseidon Adventure" effect would be if the artificial gravity controls malfunctioned. And what a strange malfunction, as the gravity continues to shift a millimeter at a time until everything is upside-down!

General Grievous has enough organic parts to cough, but his breathing is unaffected by the vacuum of space.

"Send me to kill the Emperor," says Obi-Wan before he knows Palpatine is the Emperor.

How does Padmé find Anakin in the Mustafar system? Maybe that's the only habitable part of the planet.

"Only a Sith deals in absolutes," cries Obi-Wan, although his statement is itself an absolute.

It takes twenty-some years to build the first Death Star, but only a few months to build the second, at least to the point where it is fully operational.

Why does Obi-Wan have Threepio's memory erased, but not Artoo's? Perhaps because the astromech droid can't speak?

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

These rebels have a much easier time defeating AT-ATs than in The Empire Strikes Back. Or are Snowspeeders simply that puny?

For the first time in the history of the Star Wars universe, there is a protective railing on a dangerous catwalk, at the top of the Citadel Tower.

Darth Vader and his Stormtroopers stand at a hatch opening directly onto airless space without either suffocating or being sucked into the void.

Episode IV: A New Hope

Threepio moans that there's no escape for the princess. Yet when he sees the hologram of Leia, he doesn't know who she is.

That plastic armor worn by all Stormtroopers isn't very effective. It never takes more than one blaster shot to down a Trooper.

Threepio, after being jettisoned in an escape pod, looks back and comments that the damage doesn't look so bad from out in space. Is he referring to the rebel ship he just left? Because the only ship we can see is the Imperial Star Destroyer, which probably wasn't damaged a whole lot from the battle with a tiny consular ship.

Leia claims to be on a diplomatic mission to Alderaan. Since when do ambassadors go on missions to their homelands? No wonder Vader isn't fooled.

Luke neglects to remind Uncle Owen about getting a droid that speaks Bocce; fortunately, Uncle remembers on his own.

When Owen purchases R2-D2, there is suddenly an R5 unit beside the droid, even though it blew its motivator only moments before. That's because it's actually a bit of reused footage of Artoo.

Luke struggles to pry out something that's jammed inside R2, setting off Leia's message. Is that supposed to be the death Star plans hidden in the droid? Because that's not where Leia put them.

First Owen says he doesn't know what R2 is talking about when he mentions Obi-Wan Kenobi. Then he says that Obi-Wan is dead. Is Luke buying any of this?

While Luke is eating with Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru, the cup in his hand jumps around quite a bit to and from his mouth and from one hand to the other.

If you look carefully, you'll see that one of the droids at the farm is actually running on rails.

Luke spies Banthas wearing saddles, but he's not sure there are any Sandpeople around until he sees one. What does he think the Banthas are doing there?

Ben Kenobi's memory is certainly faulty. He seems not to remember Artoo or Threepio at all. Sure, it was a long time ago, but they played a pretty big role in his life, and he personally hid them with Capt. Antilles, good reasons for the droids to be indellibly seared in the Jedi's memory. He also claims to have dropped the name "Obi-Wan" before Luke was born, though that certainly was not the case. And he claims that Owen had a problem with Anakin's ideals. The only time Owen and Anakin met, the latter wasn't behaving in a particularly idealistic fashion.

The sound on the hologram message is sometimes out of sync.

The Leia hologram says that her mission to bring Obi-Wan to Alderaan has failed. Good thing! If it had succeeded, he would have died with the rest of the planet. What exactly was Leia's plan, I wonder, once they arrived on Alderaan? We'll never know...

When Tarkin discovers that Princess Leia has lied to him about the location of the Rebel Base, he angrily orders Darth Vader to terminate her immediately. Obviously, Vader never complies. He later comments that she may yet be of use. This must be some new definition of the word "immediately."

"Only Imperial Stormtroopers are so precise" with blaster fire, says Ben Kenobi. Only, Troopers aren't all that precise during the rest of the film. In fact, they miss our heroes quite often.

Han boasts that the Milennium Falcon made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs. A parsec is a unit of distance, not time. See footnote

Ben Kenobi specifically states that he wants safe passage to Alderaan with no questions asked. Naturally, the first thing Han does is ask if it's some kind of local trouble. What part of "no questions" didn't you understand?

One of the Stormtroopers orders the rest to load their weapons. Since when do blasters need to be loaded? We never see anybody load a blaster in any episode of the franchise. And if they did need to be loaded, wouldn't the Troopers load them before leaving their ship?

As Luke and Obi-Wan head for the Milennium Falcon to leave Mos Eisley, a long-nosed alien spies on them; while alerting the Stormtroopers via his comlink, the alien's nose gets in the way and he socks himself a painful-looking blow. You'd think he'd be used to the size of his own nose.

The first thing Chewie does upon settling into the cockpit is remove his bandolier. Yet he has it on again when they make the jump to hyperspace.

When 3PO mentions Princess Leia by name, Luke reacts, even though the hologram message never gives her name. Ben must've talked with him about the princess onboard the Falcon.

Darth Vader continues to make hand gestures after he's finished speaking to Tarkin.

That catwalk leading to the tractor beam control is awfully dangerous without a railing. Have any technicians fallen off, I wonder?

As soon as Han drops into the trash compactor, he fires his blaster, causing Luke to scream, "I already tried that!" Han was barely five seconds behind Luke in the garbage chute; if the latter had fired a shot, it would still be ricocheting as Han came down.

Leia states that it won't take the Imperials long to figure out that they've escaped down the garbage chute, nor should it. But no Stormtroopers ever show up at the door to capture our heroes.

In the garbage compactor, you can see Luke mouth the words, "What was that," but can't hear him say anything. Maybe he's whispering.

Luke is almost killed by the Dia Naga, while Chewie stands off to the side, futilely pounding on the door. A little help, please...

Leia's hair is a mess when she exits the trash compactor, and no wonder, with all she's been through. Only it looks a lot neater when she and Luke meet up with Han at the Falcon.

Leia shouts, "They're coming through!" well before the Stormtroopers begin to open the door.

When Han and Luke fight off the TIE Fighters with the Falcon's guns, Han's headset is a right-handed apparatus, but Luke's is a leftie.

Some shots of Leia and Threepio in the Yavin control center are reverse images.

We hear an announcement that the rebel base will be in range in thirty minutes, but the on-screen counter is moving much too fast to be counting down minutes. Actually, the numbers on the screen are often different from the numbers that are announced.

We hear someone ask over the com system, "Red 6, can you see Red 5?" Too bad Red 6 is already dead by this time.

A message is sent to Red Leader that Tiree and Hutch are gone, to which Red Leader answers, "I copy, Gold Leader." Hey, buddy, Gold Leader's already dead. You're talking to Gold 5.

"I've lost Artoo!" wails Luke, though we can see the droid behind his head, and he looks okay.

Although it's hard to hear, when Leia rushes to hug Luke after the destruction of the Death Star, young Skywalker happily shouts, "Carrie!"

Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

Nobody can pronounce Han's name correctly in this episode.

Somewhere between the destruction of the Death Star and the beginning of this film, Darth Vader learns Luke's identity. At the end of Episode IV, Luke was just a nameless rebel pilot to Vader.

Luke appears to have found time for a haircut after his release from sick bay.

Luke says the armor on the Imperial Walkers is too tough for the Snowspeeders' blasters, yet once the AT-AT falls over, the blasters destroy it easily enough.

Ben tells Luke to go to the Dagobah System to find Yoda. But he never says which world in the system to visit. Maybe the system only has one planet.

It seems like Luke neglects to tell his friends he's off to Dagaobah. Do they wonder why he doesn't show up at the rendezvous?

Luckily, Luke lands his X-Wing very near to Yoda's home, considering he had an entire planet to search.

Trying to hide from the Imperials, Han flies the Falcon into a cave in an asteroid, unwittingly entering the mouth of a giant space slug. The creature or the asteroid must have its own atmosphere, because Han, Leia, and Chewie are able to walk around inside it without any type of space suit.

Luke tells Artoo to stay and watch over the camp. So what is the droid doing away from camp, peeking in Yoda's window?

Does Darth Vader kill Captain Needa? He seems to move when the guards carry him away. Perhaps the Sith Lord was merciful this time.

Although Anakin built C-3PO himself, we see another virtually identical droid. Did Ani use a kit?

Lando says that Darth Vader and friends arrived in Cloud City just before the Falcon. How? Boba Fett followed them to Bespin and must've contacted Vader to relay the Falcon's destination to the Sith Lord, who somehow managed to get there before Han.

Yoda tells Luke that he will destroy everything his friends fought for if he leaves to help them, a prediction of Yoda's that definitely does not come true.

At the very end, Lando is shown in a white shirt and black vest. Is he wearing Han's clothes?

Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Lando still can't pronounce Han's name.

When Han is defrosted, he's not wearing the upper-arm restraints he had when entering the carbon-freezing chamber.

Right before swinging off the barge, Luke says, "Come on," without moving his lips.

Is it an optical illusion, or can you see right through the Emperor's hand when he arrives at the Death Star?

Yoda's body, like that of Obi-Wan, vanishes at death. But Qui-Gon's didn't back in Episode I.

Ben Kenobi tells how the Skywalker infants were hidden from Darth Vader at birth. But why not change baby Luke's last name as a precaution?

The Endor landing party is well camouflaged for their trek into the forest--all except for that shiny gold-plated droid who stands out like a beacon.

Luke and Leia don't even try to shoot the Imperial Biker Scouts until they are fired upon by one. Leia's even carrying a personal blaster she could've used.

Luke travels miles and miles on the speederbike, then walks back to Han. Maybe he was flying in circles...

Where does Leia get that buckskin dress she wears in the Ewok village? Does she always carry it on dangerous missions? Or do the Ewoks keep extra clothes around for large visiting aliens?

C-3PO complains that it is against his programming to impersonate a deity, yet he does so, upon Luke's orders. Does the Force work on droids?

Threepio enthralls the Ewoks with tales of his adventures, even though he said in A New Hope that he wasn't very good at telling stories in an interesting fashion.

Leia says that she remembers her real mother as beautiful and kind, but sad. While these things are true, it would be impossible for Leia to remember them, since Padmé died minutes after giving birth.

The Imperial commander tells his men to "bring those two down here," referring to the droids. I can't see Artoo in that shot, can you?

Look closely at the band of rebels held prisoner by the Imperial troops on Endor. Among them, standing with his hands on his head, is that Biker Scout they captured earlier. Guess he couldn't convince the Stormtroopers he was on their side.

Luke enters the lift flanked by stormtroopers, but exits with Vader, who originally stayed behind.

We already know that there are always exactly two Sith at a time. If Luke is to become the Emperor's new apprentice, then that should signal to Darth Vader that his days are numbered. Maybe that's why he turns on his master.

Annakin's ghost is dressed exactly like Yoda and Obi-Wan, a costume he never wore in his lifetime.

Episode VII: The Force Awakens

Why doesn't Rey drive her speeder up to the Star Destroyer hulk? Maybe she just enjoys sliding down the hill on her exit.

Rey is set upon by thugs who try to steal BB-8. You'd think after this she would keep the little droid within arm's reach for a while, but immediately after fighting off the would-be thieves, Rey turns her back on BB-8, almost inviting another attempt.

When the turret in the Millenium Falcon freezes, limiting Finn's ability to aim, he might try climbing up the ladder to the other gun.

Good thing the rathtars decide to drag Finn away instead of eating him immediately like they do to all their other victims.

Note:This glitch has been "repaired" by a plethora of Star Wars fans with a fine explanation which has been universally embraced. Bravo! But the process of explaning away glitches is a separate topic beyond the scope of this humble site.

STAR WARS LOOSE ENDS

Now that the first two trilogies are complete, everything in the Star Wars universe has been sewn up pretty neatly, except, perhaps, for these few areas we would've liked to see explored just a tad more:

Nothing is ever revealed about Han and Chewbacca's past lives, except for a brief moment of Chewie battling on his home world of Kashyyk. But there are rumors of a prequel in the works.

We never learn much about the mysterious Sifo-Dyas. Obi-Wan says he died ten years ago, within the time Kenobi was a Jedi, so he must have known him, or at least known of him. Why did Sifo-Dyas go against the Council to create the clone army in secret? Did he turn to the Dark Side? Was he that Jedi master Palpatine murdered? Will we ever know?

Palpatine says that his old master could create life. Anakin takes this to mean a method to prevent death. But could it be that this former Jedi actually caused Anakin's spontaneaous birth? If so, why? It appears to be a complete accident that Qui-Gon ever met Ani in the first place, not part of some great scheme. Or did Palpatine, or his master, somehow orchestrate the whole business? If they did, the range of their power and influence staggers the imagination! And consider, in doing so, they caused their own eventual downfall.